Primary school pupils read ‘longer books of greater difficulty’ during lockdown (Ben Birchall/PA) Young people’s reading skills improved during lockdown as many children picked up longer books of greater difficulty, according to a literacy study. But older pupils in secondary school were still reading books of the same difficulty as upper primary pupils during the pandemic year, the report suggests. The latest edition of the annual What Kids Are Reading report analysed the reading habits of more than 1.1 million young people across the UK and Ireland. The report, produced by Professor Keith Topping, of the University of Dundee, and assessment provider Renaissance UK, found that the number of books read overall dropped by 17% compared with last year.